On Thursday 4th September BBC2 21.00-22.30 is showing 'Castles in the Sky', a dramatic presentation of the story of the invention of radar, starring Eddie Izzard as Robert Watson Watt.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04gnhv7
Castles in the Sky
On Thursday 4th September BBC2 21.00-22.30 is showing 'Castles in the Sky', a dramatic presentation of the story of the invention of radar, starring Eddie Izzard as Robert Watson Watt.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04gnhv7
Thanks for the reminder Dave.
Mrs K. saw it advertised on TV yesterday but did not get the details of when it was to be broadcast.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Hopefully it will be on Iplayer...
Run for your life - there are stupid people everywhere!
It was a good programme. It is amazing how Robert Watson-Watt's team managed to succeed despite all the obstacles and opposition. Without radar, I think that the Battle of Britain would probably have been lost.
The programme will be available on BBC iplayer for the next 6 days. There is also a 'making of' video and some articles about subsequent developments in radar.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...les-in-the-sky
I was about 15 minutes in and my digibox crashed (which I think it's only ever done once before in many years of faithful service).
Obviously, it was still transmitting, so not on i-player at that time, so I gave up on the day in disgust and had an early night.
The wife and I will watch it on i-player, throught the games console and big TV, today.
I recorded it last night too, so am hoping that the box worked O.K.
if so I will watch it tomorrow.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Enjoyable as a drama but bearing only a passing resemblance to the history
It's not at all my era of historical research; so Dave, what's the true story?
http://www.radarpages.co.uk/people/w...atson-watt.htm
Some brief details here
The main difference is that he seems to have been very much more of an establishment man than a maverick - but that does not make good drama. The final scene in particular was a bit daft, they new perfectly well that radar would work well before the start of the battle of britain and he certainly was not given the cold shoulder by the ministry at any stage
One amusing anecdote, which may or may not be true - it seems that he was very much put out by being stopped for speeding in Canada in the early 1970's by a young traffic policeman with a radar gun.
The R.A.F. Air Defence Radar Museum is fairly close to my home. I must try to visit it in the near future.
http://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/
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